Ones that get emotional when they see their Lord beaten and killed, I guess.

Absolutely. Now... if we could just put an end to Kirk's career and stop making crappy Christian movies...

Final Figures for Weekend Feb 27-29, 2004
TW	LW	Title	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count	Change	Average	Total Gross	Cost*	Week #
1	N	The Passion of the Christ	NM	$83,848,082	-	3,043	-	$27,554	$125,185,971	$30 / $15	1
2	1	50 First Dates	Sony	$12,565,729	-38.50%	3,450	-162	$3,642	$88,683,963	$75 / -	3
3	N	Twisted	Par.	$8,904,299	-	2,703	-	$3,294	$8,904,299	- / -	1
4	2	Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen	Dis.	$6,346,941	-32.10%	2,503	-	$2,535	$16,905,932	- / -	2
5	N	Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights	Lions	$5,811,325	-	2,042	-	$2,845	$5,811,325	$25 / -	1
6	3	Miracle	Dis.	$4,469,617	-42.70%	2,222	-491	$2,011	$56,328,330	- / -	4
7	5	Eurotrip	DW	$4,051,428	-39.60%	2,544	32	$1,592	$12,758,176	$25 / $15	2
8	4	Welcome to Mooseport	Fox	$3,279,764	-51.60%	2,868	-	$1,143	$11,539,863	$30 / -	2
9	6	Barbershop 2: Back in Business	MGM	$3,125,536	-50.30%	1,524	-705	$2,050	$57,575,543	$30 / $20	4
10	N	Club Dread	FoxS	$3,035,688	-	1,807	-	$1,679	$3,035,688	- / -	1

Wow, is all I can say. This came out $8M more than they thought!

Chris

Unfortunately, the success of Passion means even more crappy Christian quicky knockoffs in an attempt to cash in.

Probably true. The sad thing is.. most Christians even hate these films, but some of them are convinced they should support them. I say, don't support them, you'll only encourage them!

You mean Judas isn't a big budget mini-series?!?!?! I'm shocked!

I think that this movie has a more widespread audience than that.

Most practicing Christians (in practicing, I mean those Christians that have truly accepted Jesus as their Lord & Savior; there's a huge difference between being a nominal Christian and a practicing one) were truly touched by this movie.

Another audience that it's affected are those Christians who've fallen away from the Lord. I know so many ppl who were inspired to pull out their Bible and/or pray for the first time in a long time after viewing this movie.

People are also right in saying that Gibson made this movie for ppl who already had a background of the story, but I'm sure he also realized that ppl who didn't have a background of it would want to find out more about the story (whether it's poppin' open a Bible, asking questions to other Christians, searching on the Internet, etc.) after viewing the movie. I went to see it with my best friend whose not a Christian and has very little background about Jesus's last 12 hours and he thought that the movie was very good and throughout the movie he was constantly askin' me questions.

Billy Graham said something along the lines that this is the most powerful evangelistic in the past 25 years and I completely agree with him. My viewing of the movie with my friend is a perfect example of this.

That over $300 million I predicted looks like a pretty sure thing now. I know, I know we'll have to see what it does this next weekend. But it is looking much more likely than not that it will make more than $300 million now.

If promising them heaven at the end of the rainbow doesn't work, Guilt them into it. I like their style..

Who's style?

Mel's I suppose.

I'll let you know when the numbers from a few more weeks are in.

I am very surprised and impressed, however.

Where did you get that quote from natesfortune from? I looked and couldn't see it. Maybe it's my new eyes!

Chris

I get it, a religious joke.

Guilt? I don't think so.

In the Bible, it says that Jesus was flogged but it doesn't say to what extent. This movie shows what Jesus really went through (although it may not have been as severe, it was bad nevertheless). The man went through so much physical pain and at any moment could've been saved by Angels but chose not to because He chose to pay for the sins of mankind with his death on the cross. The whole time he was sayin' forgive them for they don't know what they're doing and that he still loves them, etc.

The viewers see how much Jesus actually suffered for sinners like us and that's what really turns them back to Christ, not guilt as you say.

I was just kidding. You're too distinguished to be dining on crow anyway.

However, I will point out you made that statement after referencing how many people you saw in the theater in its second day of playing - saying that "it's not Lord of the Rings". I think in relation to what you were referring when you made that comment, that it is perfectly okay to give you a little ribbing that it actually opened BETTER than The Lord of the Rings on many less screens.

Or maybe Madison is just way less representative of the rest of America than even you thought!

I agree. My faith has deepend incredibly since the film, and I've been doing far more reading than before. It's not "guilt" that is producing that effect. I just find a certain divinity in somebody enduring that and still managing to stick to His message of love and praying for His enemies throughout it all. That's what has affected me as much as anything else.

Jesus' beating was likely even MORE severe than what was portrayed in the film. The Bible says he was "whipped"(better translations say "scourged"), and people condemned to the cross were generally scourged to hasten death. Roman scourging was so bad that many eyewitnesses at the time to other scourgings(unrelated to anything religious), have described entrails being exposed by the beating. Many people died from the scourging alone.

In this time of human savagery, when "an eye for an eye" would clearly be seen as "the right way", the radical ideas of "Love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek" were truly revolutionary concepts, and they've shaped and changed the Western World in a very positive way since that time, as those concepts have become a part of our culture - love and acceptance, compassion. So foreign to the World at the time, but Jesus of Nazareth, as either just a philosopher or the Son of God, clearly helped change the world for the better.

That's another thing this film has awakened me to.

Mr.Payroll,

It's on page 7 of 8 in this thread, I think - nearer the bottom.

Has anybody seen the estimates be off by so much for a weekend? Yesterday 117 mil. Today 125 mil. They are usually much closer than that. Most of the error was on Sunday.

Well, I'm finally starting to come around and believe this film will do absolutely HUGE numbers. I'm now convinced that there are many who WILL see this again despite the content (or perhaps because of it).

I also think it will do great this weekend. Looking at the per screen average (which is another simply unbelievable number), there are probably many that could not get in to see it last weekend.

This has got to be the most interesting cinema story in quite a while. As I said in another thread, I'm looking forward to the extra features on the DVD. Who would have thought this little film in a language no one speaks would do battle with the likes of Lord of the Rings and Phantom Menace for boxoffice supremacy? It might even challenge Spiderman before its over...

All I can say is WOW!!

You can't be serious. Are you actually trying to imply that ROTK had it tougher than Passion at the boxoffice ???

Let's see:

ROTK - Huge budget (both film and advertising), final chapter of an immensely popular book and film series, big stars (at least by the time of ROTK, I realize many were not as well known in FOTR), Christmas release, PG-13 rating, etc. Besides, it was on many more screens making the point about length and low number of screenings moot.

Passion - Low budget, religious film, in dead languages with few subtitles, opens in February, no well known stars, gory, comparatively much fewer screens and theaters, etc.

True that Passion has less competition but ROTK wasn't exactly fighting heavyweights in late December either.

No one can argue this film is even on equal footing with ROTK with a straight face.

I have never seen an estimate off by even close to that amount. They're usually accurate within a few hundred thousand. If it's off by a million it's a very big deal. But off by $7.6 million??? That's just incredible.

They clearly didn't take Sunday into account. Sunday is usually weaker than Friday for obvious reasons. However, Saturday saw an incredible leap in ticket sales, and Sunday was stronger by about $7 million than they thought it would be.

I figured they might have underestimated Sunday, because it's Sunday, afterall, and I just didn't see THIS film falling as much on Sunday as usual. The Saturday uptick should have also given an indication. Still, I don't think there's any way they could have called it even close to correctly - I thought they may have been a couple of million off, not $7.6 million!

Truly amazing numbers, and that Sunday increase bodes very well for this film's word of mouth and staying power.

And yes, the per-screen average is easily the best ever for a film being released this wide. It's beaten Spiderman by about or over $2000 per screen, which is a pretty big percentage increase over that film.

Mel Gibson said that he was "probably crazy, but maybe I'm a genius."(paraprhasing) - it's looking like the latter is the correct assesment.

Wow! I could have sworn I checked all of page 7!

Chris

Thank you for that but sometimes I think distinguished just means old.

But this movie is doing much more than I thought it would and if its final numbers come within, say, 100 million of RotK in North America I will eat crow or at least eat some chicken as symbolic crow in your honor (crow probably tastes like chicken anyway).
I was stunned by how few people were at those showings. I guess I shouldn't have drawn any conclusions from this experience.

I was going to tell you it was 16 posts above mine but I really thought the "new eyes" line was just a religious joke and you were getting in on the ribbing with natesfortune.

I didn't think you actually couldn't find his post.

So all the previous attempts to bring them closer to the faith has failed while showing them how much some guy suffered for them with such intensity doesn't count as a Guilt trip? Maybe not in your book, but it sure does in mine.